Michael O’Neill will start his second reign as Northern Ireland supervisor believing his aspect has each likelihood of reaching the Euro 2024 finals.
The 53-year-old, who returned to the job in December virtually three years after leaving for Stoke, hopes Thursday’s opening qualifier away to San Marino is the beginning of a marketing campaign wherein they will replicate the best success of his earlier eight-year stint in cost, after they made it to Euro 2016.
“At the start of any campaign you feel you have a real chance, that is the most important thing and this campaign is no different,” mentioned O’Neill, whose aspect can even face Finland on Sunday with Denmark, Slovenia and Kazakhstan the opposite sides in Group H.
“It was not that difficult a decision for me to come back into the role. I unfortunately missed the opportunity to take the country into the (Euro 2020/21) play-off which was part of the deal when I left.
“To get the chance again in terms of a qualification campaign with this group of players, and also to have…a lot of the senior players still around was important for me.
“I suppose during the first three months, I knew what I was going to get from these lads, (and) what I saw potentially coming through which obviously gave me a lot of excitement and motivation as well.”
Sitting alongside Craig Cathcart, who will captain the aspect this week, O’Neill minimize a relaxed determine after watching his aspect practice in Serravalle.
Injuries have robbed him of the companies of Steven Davis, Jonny Evans, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans, Liam Boyce and extra, so O’Neill will flip to a youthful core of gamers he doesn’t know so nicely.
“I’m feeling good,” he mentioned. “I’ve really enjoyed it since Sunday. The problems we had were pre-coming in because the injuries happened prior to us meeting up.
“It’s not like we have come in and lost six or seven players. We knew from the off those players weren’t going to be with us so you adapt to that.
“It’s been enjoyable for me getting to know some of the younger players but also being able to put some demands and standards on them as well.
“In this campaign we are going to have experience which is invaluable to us but also what the young boys bring will be very important.”
The expertise which has been sidelined can’t be changed however O’Neill mentioned he nonetheless had the gamers he must get outcomes and is trying ahead to seeing Northern Ireland develop stronger in the course of the marketing campaign as others return.
“I’m confident this team can go forward and with the squad of players we have at this moment in time, I believe we can be very competitive in this group,” he mentioned.
“As this group progresses we will hopefully start to see the likes of Dallas and those players come back.
“Our squad should get stronger as the campaign goes on.”
Cathcart will captain the aspect within the absence of each Davis and Evans, a proud second for the 34-year-old, who was a part of O’Neill’s first squad again in 2012.
The Watford defender is again within the aspect after sitting out the Nations League fixtures in June and September which proved to be the final of Ian Baraclough’s reign.
“I felt like I needed a break at that stage of my career,” mentioned Cathcart, who has 69 caps. “I felt like I needed a summer off and I enjoyed time with my family but when I spoke to Michael on the phone, I was happy to come back into the fold.
“Absolutely it feels good to be back…it feels like old times, there’s familiar faces around, a good couple of days training and the feel-good factor is back.”